8/16/2007

Odex or Odium?

The hefty fines that children are made to pay for downloading anime from the net is just. A crime is a crime. So age is a non issue. You download you infringe on people's copyright and intellectual properties. You must pay. I also believe that the law looks at children differently. Children cannot be jailed or caned, or hanged. But we are a nation that operates under the rule of law. We must accept the law with no exceptions. Reminds me of the school girl without a student pass. Just administer the law. And also of the streetdirectory provider. You download a few pages, the damages will come to tens of thousands. That is justice in a rule of law country.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

And so the law has to change...What era is this already...

Abao said...

RedBean, I would suggest that you get a clearer picture before you speak on the ODEX situation.

There is a BIG grey area between downloading of fansubs and distributing them for profit. There is no absolute right or wrong in this case. As Andy Ho has said in the Straits Times, downloading of creative content is permitted if its not for profit.

Abao said...

Some points for you as references before making a stand:

1. AVPAS was formed primarily by ODEX with Japanese Animation Studios to combat piracy.

2. ODEX is a SEA Distributor

3. Since May, ODEX has been sending letters stating that "user" has downloaded said anime and threatens "user" to meet them.

"User" will then meet them in private and agree to compensate them for said amount to cover costs in tracking them down. The directors of ODEX will express their regret and sympathies at such a move and said it was the Japanese Companies pulling strings.

4. ODEX does not announce licenses of what they own, thus people do not even know what they are selling until either they are caught or they saw them on local stores

5. AVPAS anime list includes anime titles of Japanese Animation Companies, making identification hard. ( Complete list 400+++ )

6. ODEX has a near non-existant PR with the community

7. When people are originally forced to pay up, ODEX had moral authority. But this image was destroyed when the director's comments was exposed:"double-6-ed them...busy sueing people..."

8. Matching people according to IP addresses may not be foolproof. RIAA and MPAA has tried for many years and there are examples of dubious cases where the innocent was charged.

9. In order to track people torrenting, they have to torrent themselves to discover the other seeds and peers.

10. People torrenting are usually students, and do not have the financial ability to buy in the first place. Where are your sales affected?

11. People are more concerned about timely released of Animes in Singapore. They dont want releases that are 2-5 years old.

12. It is said that their quality is inferior. This I do not know and will conduct a test in the near future to access whether those claims are true.

Anonymous said...

No, imposing excessive punitive measures on children is not justice, and it will never be justice, and excessive punishment will not solve the "problem" (if there is one in the first place).

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

thanks abao for the info. this is your area of expertise.

my concern is that many of the offenders are children and may even be below puberty age. there are two concerns here. young children, though internet savvy, may know understand the consequences of their action. the next concern is that they are downloading for some fun. ok good if personal uses are exempted.

i am not sure if those hauled up are because of commercial use or a little exchanges between school going kids. i may take it less kindly for poly or university students who are expected to know wrongs from rights.

with the advent of internet, children could infringe or violate into legal areas intentionally or unintentionally. imagine a 12 year old kid entering x rated site, illegal entry into govt site, or downloading things which he cannot afford to have.

the law got to look at these cases in a different light. if commercial enterprise can suka suka levy whatever fines against offenders with the threat of court, it can be held to those hit.

the law is the law and some commercial organisations had to pay heavily for printing a few maps. the compensation was out of proportion.

now the horizon towers, another example of selling for $2m and may have to compensate $5m. disproportionate justice.

this is my concern.

Abao said...

Yes....sorry for the sudden barrage...I overlooked the second paragraph of yours.

Our laws should be amended or reintepreted to allow for fair usage of creative works. We could allow downloading of undistributed work in Singapore and make it illegal only after businesses sell their products in Singapore.

Of course, now that the situation get blown up to these proportions, its hard to persuade ODEX to change strategy and improve on its PR, and even harder for the hordes of ODEX bashers to listen to what they say.

What I am really afraid is that the government will seek to impose more rigid laws in future. Then its a lose-lose situation.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

Rule of law

When a child or an average heartlander's child is slammed by Odex with a few thousand dollars of compensation, what is his option? Going to the lawyer and prepare to pay another few thousands?

What kind of society are we becoming when the weak and helpless can be cornered to pay a ransom for a little violation of somebody's right? Do we have a govt body to stand up for the small people? Or the small people are expected to fight for their own rights or simply pay whatever that is demanded from them?

Rule of law is supreme and best for out country. No two way about it. Those people who downloaded illegally, please pay up. That is the law.

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

Hey you confused fuckers,

Laws are essentially there to protect PRIVATE PROPERTY. Laws are universal and uniform such that EVERYONE is EQUAL under the law.

Children are also subject to the law. Only PUNISHMENT should be discretionary, i.e. how an infringement (by a child) to a law is punished or dealt with.

A wrong is a wrong—the age of the person making the choice to BREAK a law is irrelevant to the fact that the law has been broken.

Wake the fuck up people!

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

stop taking too much drug lah. you are repeating what i have said but in different words lah.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

that is matilah's friendly vocab. abao if you are unhappy with his kind of friendliness, please forgive him.

he is still trying to find his way back to civilisation.

Abao said...

I'm long used to matilah's style :) don't let it bother you